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Show [ 174 ] On iilve ry beds, of foft aibcfius wove, 4 r 5 Meets her Gnon1e-huf.bancl, and avovvs her love. ---High o'er her couch in1pending dian1onds blaze, And brancl~ing gold the cryfial roof inlays; \Vith verdant light the n1odefl: e1neralds glow, Blue fJpphires glare, and rubies blu{h, below; Light piers of lazuli the dotne furround, And pictured tnochoes teffelate the ground ; In glittering threads along refleB:ive walls The wann rill tnurmuring twinkles, as it falls; Now fink the Eolian firings, and now they f well, 4.2 5 And Echoes woo in every vaulted cell ; While on white wings delighted Cupids play, Shake their bright lamps, and ilied celeftial clay. Clofed in an azure fig by fairy fpells, Bofom' d in down, fair CAPRI-FICA dwells ;--- found by dogs or [wine, who hunt it by the fm c!!. Other plants, which have no buds or branches on their Hems, as the graffcs, {hoot out numerous fl:olcs or fcions under ground; and this the more, as their tops or herbs are eaten by cattle, and thus preferve thcmfclves. (:aprijicus. ). 4-30. Wild fig. The fruit of the fig is not a feed-vcffcl, but a recep- [ 17S ] So Deeps in filence the Curculio, !hut In the dark cha1nbers of the cavern' d nut ' Erodes with ivory beak the vaulted il1e1l, And quits on fihny wings its narrow cell. tacle inclofing the flower within it. As thcfe trees bear fome male and others female flowers, immured on all fides by the fruit, the manner of their fecundation v.as very uninte:lli gi ble, till Tonrnefort and Pontedera difcovcrcd, that a kind of gnat produced in the male figs carried the fecundating dufl: on its wings, (Cynips Pfl.:nes Syfl:. Nat. gr9.), and penetrating the female fig, thus impregnated the flowers; for the evidence of this wonderful fact, fee the word Caprification, in Milne's Botanical Dietionary. The fi gs of this country are all female, and their feeds not prolific; and therefore they can only be propagated by layers and fuckc.:rs. Monfieur de !a Hire has !hewn in the Memoir. de l'Acadcm. de Science, that the fummer figs of Paris, in Provence, Italy, and Malta, have all perfeCt flamina, and ripen not only their fruits, but their feed; from which feed other fig-trees are raifcd; but that the flamina of the autumnal figs arc abortive, perhaps owing to the want of due warmth. Mr. Milne, in his Botanical Ditlionary, (art. Caprification) fays, that the cultivated fi g-trees have a few male flowers placed above the female within the fame covering or recep tacle; which in warmer climates perform their proper ofT-icc, but in colder ones become abortive. And Linneus obferves, that fome figs have the navel of the receptacle open; which wa one rca fon that induced him to remove tl1is plant from the clafs C!andefl:ine Marriage to the clafs Polyg:uny. Lin. Spec. Plant. From all thefe circumfl:anccs I Owuld conjeCture, that thofe female fig flowers, which arc clofed on all fides in the fruit or receptacle "' ithout any male ones, are monfl:ers, '.vhich have been propagated for their fruit, like barberries, and grapes without feeds in them; and that the Caprification is ei ther an ancient proccfs of imaginary ufc, and IJlindly followed in fomc countries, or that it may contribute to ripen the fig by tlecreafing its vigour, uke cutting off a circle of the b:uk from the branch of a pc:tr-trec. Tourncfort fecms inclined to this opinion; who fay s, that the fi gs in Provence ;JJJd at Paris ripen foon cr, if their buds be p1 ickcd with a !lraw cli11Pcd in oli~·e-o il. Plumbs and pears punCtured by fome infeCts ripen fuon cr, ;Jml thc p.1rt rou nd the punClure is fwcctcr. Is not the honey-dew produced by the pn nCl urc of infl.:Cl:. 1 will not wounding the branch of a pear-tree, which is too vi gorous, pre•ent the blo!Toms from Edling ofF; as from fome fig-trees the fnnt i faid to Llil ofF unk!'s tl:cy arc woundcd by capri l1ca ti un 1 I had !aft fpri ng fix young trees of th(; I l\ hi.t i1•• 11 ith frnit on t h ~ m in pots in a flo ·n· ; on removi ng them into largc:r boxes, they p.ulrt!ckd \'cry vi~orous !hoots, and the figs all fdl ofr ; which I afu:bcd to t~ll ir:C;'l;l[~,. \'i,~our or til<: pl.! IlL . |